The gang’s paths extended to Colombia: the “live containers” at the Vilnius airport could no longer change their minds.

Two 35-year-olds and 29 years old from Šiauliai and 26 years old from Šilutė were convicted of recruiting people to smuggle drugs into their stomachs or suitcases. A group of accomplices was involved in international drug trafficking, controlling the entire process and using recruits to use violence, both physical and psychological, if the recruits did not want to commit a crime.

One of the convicts, Vaidas Jakimavičius, was sentenced to intensive supervision. Žygimantas Chadzevičius, serving a custodial sentence in the open settlement of the Pravieniškės Correctional Facility, on May 3, 2018. The sentence imposed by the sentence was a custodial sentence of 5 years and a fine of 617.35 euros .

Šilutė Agne Bertulytė Panevėžys Regional Court October 3, 2018. Sentenced to five years in prison, followed by probation and a preventive detention order.

Difficult people to live entered the network

The investigation of the criminal case revealed that the organizers of the crime were looking for vulnerable people and whose material and social situation is extremely poor. Inesa (the names of the victims were changed to aut.

Inesa, who was raising three children, had financial problems. In addition, her son was arrested: he needed money not only for child support, but also for a lawyer. A passport was ordered for the victim, which only confirmed the suspicions that it had been used for criminal activities.

Under the same scheme, criminals continued to recruit more and more people. Arvydas, who lives hard, also entered the network. According to a plan drawn up by the criminals, Arvydas, along with the aforementioned victim Inesa, had to fly to the city of Bogotá, Colombia.

The convicted Sigismund lodged Arvydas with Inesa in his mother’s house (without his suspecting anything), provided her with the necessary clothes, bought a travel suitcase, gave her money for travel expenses and prepared him for the crime. The victims were taken from the mother’s home in Šiauliai to the Vilnius airport, but there was a flash of sight here: the couple refused to commit a crime and did not leave. After consulting, they both decided it was too dangerous, especially since a little daughter was waiting for Inesa at home.

Then the blackmail began: the criminals caught the alleged 20 thousand. So the intimidated and beaten Arvyd had to fly to the Netherlands to “work” for him and Inesa. The house was threatened with burning, to escape in midair. Furthermore, he did not want the group to intimidate Inesa and her children, so she accepted the terms.

Arvydas had to carry drugs in his stomach, and the route was from one European country to another. He said his stomach carried 78 units of bottled drugs to Italy, which he swallowed.

Arvydas could swallow up to 120 capsules, but no one paid him money for transporting the drugs, and no debt was “canceled.” In a month, the victim could make up to two “trips” and travel alone in Europe. You have heard that the capsules may be “lost” in the stomach, and you have always felt fear and tension, you could have been arrested at any time. I couldn’t refuse to follow the instructions. Therefore, it initiated a civil action, seeking compensation for non-pecuniary damage. Arvydas’s brother also had to transport drugs.

Arvydas, who lives with his brother, often spent time with Inesa; does not have a permanent place of residence. Like, by the way, a permanent job: sometimes hanging firewood or taking another temporary job. You don’t get benefits either. She has two children who live in Ireland with their mother.

During the trial, the defendant Sigismund did not plead guilty, stated that he did not know the victims, only allowed him to stay in the rented house for a few days, took care of the guests and asked a friend Vaidas, with whom he practiced sports .

A minor’s love for a villain turned into complicity

Not only the accomplice Vaidas, but also other criminals appear in the square. The defendant Agnė admitted her guilt in part: she met another accomplice Darius as a minor, at the time she was only fourteen years old. He went with his mother to Spain with him. But, as he later learned, Darius wanted to take her into prostitution. His communication ceased when the case went to court. Darius was the accused and Agnė the victim. During the trial, Darius found her and asked for a change of testimony. Since then, they began to meet and then live together.

During the pre-trial investigation, Agnė stated that he knew Darius was looking for people to transport drugs, but only after he started living together. As the prayer approached, Darius heavily “drank”. Being drunk spoke of people carrying drugs. He never knew which country people would have to go to and carry drugs. He has only heard in the abstract that he will go somewhere in Colombia, Brazil.

Inesa Agnė met her as a child, had stayed at home with Darius for some time, allegedly there was no bad intentions for the victim, and the women communicated closely. He lived in the same town, they visited each other as guests.

Drug cartel, women leaders, love ties: all this is not lacking in the case examined by the Šiauliai Regional Court. Agnė explained that due to her young age, love and admiration, Darius had taken possession of her, therefore, she had followed all the instructions of her beloved, later her husband. It is true that a little before Agnė was convicted of trafficking in women …

However, Agnė finally realized that she had fundamentally changed her lifestyle after committing the crimes for which she was being prosecuted: she was divorcing her husband, Darius, who could have had a negative impact on her. She raises and cares for her little daughter, finds a life partner, works. It was argued that the imposition of a longer custodial sentence could adversely affect the defendant’s motivation to change.

However, it was recognized that Vaidas and Agnė’s primary objective was not criminal activity itself, or the pursuit of profit, but the exploitation of victims for profit. Illicit drug possession is only one way to accomplish this.

More victims were also identified

Inesa and Arvydas are not the only victims of the criminal group. The victim Sigitas was also fighting, her house burned down. At the time, he was not working anywhere, receiving social benefits that cost him a living. After the fire, friends and acquaintances helped, who provided accommodation. Therefore, he agreed to illegally transport drugs to Russia, Saint Petersburg, for a fee. He was provided with a visa, air ticket. He swallowed 33 units of pills. The pills, according to Sigitas, looked sweet, “like barbaric bombs.” He realized that he was transporting illegal substances, even though it was inappropriate for excessive drinking. They feared that their stomach would not break, but since they needed a lot of money, they took a risk.

In St. Petersburg, Sigitas was taken by an unidentified person; the group operated in an organized manner. Sigitas met Darius in Pravieniškės when he was serving a prison sentence in 1985.

Vaidas and Žygimantas, while working with a group of accomplices, recruited other victims for the illegal acquisition, possession and transport of drugs: Aiste and Gailė. Taking advantage of the difficult financial situation of these two women, he promised a good monetary reward, they pushed her to the pharmacy.

And again the same scheme: Sigismund housed the victims in their mother’s house, where she received instructions on the mechanism of criminal activity. Vaidas transported the victims to the Riga airport in Marupe, Latvia. From which the women flew to the city of Bogotá, Colombia, with a transfer to Lisbon (Portugal). Criminals constantly monitored them on the phone. Those who have already arrived in Colombia have been taken by a person from whom the pre-trial investigation was separated.

They were in Colombia for more than two weeks. Three weeks later, he packed his luggage, ready to fly home. However, as soon as he entered the airport, Aiste was detained by police officers and taken to the check-in facilities.

At first they found nothing, but 15 minutes before the flight, the officers returned and took him out, this time they found a box of candy containing 400 grams of drugs administered by Vaid. Aisté was sentenced to four years in Colombia for this. He actually remained in jail for 30 months. In this case, he has filed a civil lawsuit against 70 thousand. for non-pecuniary damages. Prison conditions were very difficult, initially imprisoned with men, sleeping on mattresses. He had nothing to buy to eat. He felt very insecure because drugs and alcohol were being used in that prison, he had to distance himself from everything.

Another person in the case is Evaldas (nicknamed “Efkė”), who acted by prior arrangement with Vaida and Sigismund.

A similar situation is repeated: this time another person, Aistis, obtained a large quantity of cocaine from an unidentified person in the investigation, including 2 kilograms of cocaine, which he hid in his suitcase from the Eldorado airport in Colombia to the airport of Paris.

Eldorado … How symbolic. For over a hundred years, there have been stories in the world about a prosperous city with great wealth and gold. Still, these are just legends. In reality, Aistis’ “journey” ended in France: he was stopped by police officers. And “dirty gold” means seized cocaine.

Slim edge

The Šiauliai Regional Court case showed that in our country there is also a fairly branched network of drug traffickers. The criminal group exploited a group of people who were vulnerable and whose material and social situation was extremely poor. Kristina Mišinienė, director of the Center to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings (KOPŽI), told Delfi that this is a common model: Traffickers choose vulnerable people as their victims: the unemployed living in remote areas of the country, who they suffer from addictions, perpetrators of domestic violence, perhaps people.

“It is wise to manipulate a person who does not have to trust something that the service will not trust, even if they respond to a request for help. And it doesn’t matter what the purpose of the exploitation is: drug trafficking, slave labor or prostitution, “he explained.

According to the KOPŽI chief, it is difficult to identify victims who also appear to have committed crimes. “Today, this is a major obstacle to a more successful recognition of human trafficking. Police and social services often search for victims with a” clean “reputation, thus fulfilling predictions by crime organizers that they” complain it doesn’t make sense, still nobody will trust you. “Another aspect, and the victims themselves are fully convinced that they will be punished for crimes committed against their will,” K. Mišinienė highlighted the problematic aspect and added that in the case mentioned above it was a great challenge to explain to victims, to convince them that their sincere cooperation with the police, the court will help administer justice.

According to K. Mišinienė, Šiauliai forensic scientists and the district attorney deserved great respect, having managed to unravel this complex crime, they understood the “modus operandi” of the gang of experienced criminals, recognized the vulnerability of victims and KOPŽI was handed over to the center.

Are there cases where victims suffer twice – standing in court? “Currently, we do not know of any of those cases in Lithuania where an identified victim of human trafficking is being tried for forced crime. A few years ago, yes, it was, but it was identified,” emphasized the interlocutor.
She is convinced that there may be many cases in which, due to a variety of circumstances, victims do not blame themselves, dare not cooperate with the police. “This case also illustrates this perfectly: victims of human trafficking were sentenced to prison in South America for drug trafficking,” said K. Mišinienė.

The victims feared panic.

The KOPŽI center has provided intensive assistance to the victims of this case for even four years. “But even a few years later, we saw panic reactions of fear, people’s minds just darkened in horror as the conversation turned to the criminals who had recruited and terrorized them.” More than once, the criminals themselves and their favorites had come to the victims’ homes to “personalize” them, we understood this from the changing testimonies, the sudden reluctance to communicate with us, “said K. Mišinienė.
According to the interlocutor, in this case the victims reacted very differently to the social, psychological and legal assistance offered. “We found a burned-out house in one place and a person who didn’t know what to eat tomorrow, and the problems of addiction and domestic violence were revealed elsewhere. We are pleased to have found funds for qualified legal assistance,” he said.

However, according to K. Mišinienė, providing assistance in a small municipality was not easy. The community was said to have condemned these people beforehand. “It took a long persuasion, shame, before leading an official to more active action. It’s a shame, but the local Catholic relief organization was no exception here:” We know the bums and drug addicts. “All of this just shows that traffickers will find victims for a long time, because our approach allows them to do so, “said the head of the KOPŽI center.

Today, only the verdict of the trial court has been announced, the victims have been waiting for it for many years, but it has been appealed: the legal fight is increasing at higher levels. “I can honestly say that I have not seen such intimidated victims during my 19 years of work, that constant terrorization of them even after the case has gone to court,” said K. Mišinienė.